Nurture

 

Core Group

Two core groups have been established. These consist of ten S1 -3 pupils, four of whom will be entering term 4 of Nurture and six of whom are beginning term one. These pupils attend the nurture base (The Welcome Room) for 2 concurrent periods ( 1.5 hours) at the same time each day. This Welcome Room is staffed by one Principal Teacher of  Nurture and two Nurture trained Support for Learning Workers. Each of the Support for Learning Workers has responsibility for one group of pupils and will, as far as possible, be involved in their support package within the wider school.

This is supported by weekly timetabled meetings between the Welcome Room staff and by monthly timetabled case conferences between DHT with responsibility for S1/2 and Principal Teacher of Pastoral Care for S2 and S1.

There is a further group of S1 –S3 pupils who benefit from the support of six staff members currently undertaking Nurture training. By February there will be ten Nurture trained and accredited members of staff, including two SFLW.

 

Staff Development

Staff development has taken the form of a series of presentations and workshops offered during whole school collegiate time and led by a combination of visiting speakers and Lourdes staff. Every effort is made to ensure that collegiate training derives from high quality research based information and is produced in collaboration with experts in the relevant area.

This is supported by the establishment of a whole school Nurture Development Committee consisting of representatives from each faculty or department; the purpose of which is to support and facilitate whole school engagement with the recently published, ‘Applying Nurture as a Whole School Approach ’ and the accompanying self-evaluation toolkit as well as the development of a ‘curriculum for nurture’ such as autism awareness resources which are delivered through  ‘My Time’ ( First line pastoral care classes).

 

As part of our ‘Developing a Nurturing School’ journey, a Nurturing approach,( ‘Bridging the Gap’) is being piloted in Social Subjects and English with a number of carefully selected S1 and S2 pupils being offered targeted support within a secure, nurturing environment with the emphasis on self- esteem building approaches, restorative practice. There are currently twelve S1 and twelve S2 pupils benefiting from this intervention.

Impact is measured in a variety of ways including the usual forms of hard and soft data, assessment and tracking but also by measuring the pupils’ socio-emotional wellbeing through a range of approved assessment tools such as Goodman’s SDQ, Boxall Profile and Glasgow Motivation and Wellbeing Questionnaire.

In this way we have been able to demonstrate that this environment has led to an improved sense of wellbeing in our young people which has in turn led to improvements in attainment and achievement.

 

A Nurturing School

The third strand concerns Nurture in its widest sense and acts as an umbrella for a range of whole school initiatives and pastoral modelling. This include coordinating a range of activities and events including breakfast and lunch clubs, planning and leading on the social and emotional curriculum       ( Autism Awareness Week, Diversity/Interfaith Scotland Week), Charitable events and close collaboration with community groups and businesses. The establishment of a Senior Inter-Faith Forum and an Enhanced Buddy Programme for senior mentors who support S1 pupils with a diagnosis of ASD, are also important initiatives in our development of a Nurturing school.

In Lourdes, Nurture is linked inextricably with all that we do to live out the Gospel value of compassion and the concept of Getting it Right for Every Child is inherent in the Catholicity of the school which in the words of the charter for Catholic schools seeks to honour the ‘ life, voice and dignity of every human person ’.